Leo's Chance(74)

"No way my pregnant wife goes out on a roof," he had said. "I don’t care how safe this one is."

Later, baby Seth slept in a pack and play in a quiet corner upstairs in what had been my old room.

When Landon got his degree a year after we opened, we offered him the job of Director and he accepted. I was here as often as I could be but I was a busy new mom, and I knew I needed the help. He brings life and enthusiasm and fun to the place and everyone loves him. How could they not? He’s very loveable.

Several years after that, when I was nine months pregnant with Cole, my water broke in the front room as I was hanging artwork from a project I had done with the kids. Later, Cole took his first steps in The Willow House as the kids cheered him on.

We have a big garden in the back where the kids help plant vegetables and then collect them when they're ripe. What was once the empty lot next door now has a basketball court at the front and a big grassy space at the back for the kids to run around and play. We planted a Willow tree in the middle and put several picnic tables around it. It was still small, but someday it would grow big and strong, its branches bending and swaying in the wind. Sometimes the wind would be bitter cold, and sometimes it would be warm. I thought that sturdy tree would be okay either way.

Inside, we created art centers, a music room and a whole library dedicated to books and reading. It's where I tell stories if the kids ask. When my own book was published, Leo bought about twenty copies for that room alone. I just shook my head and laughed. But when I saw the way some of the kids looked at that book and asked me if I really grew up in the foster care system just like them, I decided to let them stay. I want the kids to know that their situation doesn't need to limit them – that if I could find the courage to reach for my dreams, so can they.

We also have computers and tutors who help with homework. We have a big kitchen where volunteers teach the kids how to cook and prepare meals.

Preston puts on a science fair every year for The Willow House and the winner receives a college scholarship to be used for a science or engineering major. Christine retired early to be a full-time mom as her kids started high school. She and her family volunteer often, and we have become very close. Christine is like a mother to me. To us.

We had planned and dreamed and loved on that roof of ours. We didn’t know that the journey that would finally bring us to our happily ever after would be full of detours and pitfalls and pain. We didn’t know how much love and forgiveness and understanding would be required to make it back on the path we were meant to be on, together. But what we did know was that we were here because we had both been willing to fight; to fight for each other, to fight for ourselves, to fight for the kids who needed a place to belong, to fight for love. And that means that despite all the pain that we had endured to be where we are, in the end, love won.





Acknowledgement

Special, special thanks from the bottom of my heart to my Executive Proofing Committee, Angela Smith and Larissa Kahle. Thank you for reading my book multiple times, giving me constant encouragement, and for telling me truthfully when Leo was being a "dorky narrator." I know he thanks you too.

Thank you to my family as well, especially my endlessly supportive husband.





About the Author


Mia Sheridan lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband who is a police officer and her biggest fan (not necessarily in that order). They have four children here on earth and one in heaven. When she isn’t writing or reading romance novels, she enjoys anything creative from building a patio, to sewing pillows. Leo's Chance is the follow-up to her debut novel, Leo. Mia can be found online at www.MiaSheridan.com or www.facebook.com/miasheridanauthor.